Exclusive: Breck Eisner on Escape From New York

Breck Eisner’s The Crazies hits Blu-ray and DVD next Tuesday and ComingSoon.net got a chance to talk to the director about his next project, New Line/Warner Bros.’ update of Escape From New York.

“I’m a huge fan. As a kid, I absolutely loved that movie. And Snake is such a bad-ass,” Eisner told us. “The interesting thing about ‘Escape from New York’ is that it was a comment on the urban decay and the suburban flight coming out of the ’70s and early ’80s. Conceptually, it’s an idea that’s not true today because of the world we live in. So, how the prison is created is going to be different than in Carpenter’s version. The anxiety of the world and anxiety of our existence post-9/11 is there, especially the anxiety in Manhattan post-9/11. Plot-wise, they’re different, emotionally they’re very similar. That’s why it’ll be interesting to tackle this movie, to have a slightly different take but with the same results which is Manhattan is turned into a walled prison.”

Eisner added that more work on the script will be done. “I would be surprised if I found a script that I was just ready to make. I’m bringing on another writer this week and we will do a pass on the latest draft by Allan Loeb. We’ll be doing a significant pass on that.”

John Carpenter’s 1981 film starred Kurt Russell. A follow-up, Escape from L.A., was released in 1996.